Michel Foucault

French philosopher (1926–1984)

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Lived 1926–1984, aged 58France

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Wikipedia
96 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1926–1984
Aged 58
Known for
Foucault Against Himself
2014

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

He dissected how power works through prisons, hospitals, and sex itself — not by banning or oppressing, but by classifying, observing, and shaping what counts as normal. His books rewired how scholars think about control, madness, and the body.

Biography

About

Born in 1926 into an upper-middle-class family in Poitiers, Foucault studied philosophy and psychology in Paris, coming under the influence of Jean Hyppolite and Louis Althusser. After years as a cultural diplomat, he published The History of Madness in 1961, then The Birth of the Clinic and The Order of Things through the mid-1960s — works that built what he called "archaeology," a method for excavating how knowledge systems emerge and govern. He lectured in Tunis, then returned to head the philosophy department at Paris VIII before joining the Collège de France in 1970, a post he held until…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault

said1984

One can say that the author is an ideological product, since we represent him as the opposite of his historically real function.

— "What is an author?" (1984)

Michel Foucault

said25 Oct 1982

I don't feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning.

— Truth, Power, Self : An Interview with Michel Foucault (25 October 1982)

Michel Foucault

said25 Oct 1982

I'm very proud that some people think that I'm a danger for the intellectual health of students.

— Truth, Power, Self : An Interview with Michel Foucault (25 October 1982)

Michel Foucault

said25 Oct 1982

When I was a student in the 1950s, I read Husserl, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty. When you feel an overwhelming influence, you try to open a window.

— Truth, Power, Self : An Interview with Michel Foucault (25 October 1982)

Michel Foucault

saidJun 1982

Well, if identity is only a game, if it is only a procedure to have relations, social and sexual-pleasure relationships that create new friendships, it is useful.

— "Sex, Power, and the Politics of Identity", interview in The Advocate, June 1982, as translated in Ethics, Subjectivity and Truth (1994),

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